The Bimaaji’idiwin Producer Training Program is rooted in cultural foodways and community knowledge while building resilient, future‑ready local food systems. Grounded in the Anishinaabe concept of bimaaji’idiwin—symbiosis—the program supports people who want to grow food for themselves or develop vegetable farming businesses by increasing access to land, education, infrastructure, markets, and farmer networks. By centering culturally relevant practices and shared learning, the program strengthens food sovereignty while helping producers adapt to economic, environmental, and social change. Established in 2019 and modeled after Big River Farms’ Farmer Training Program, Bimaaji’idiwin has served over 70 community members through hands‑on training, Demonstration Gardens, and partnerships with local youth and adult programs. The program builds intergenerational relationships and connects emerging producers with agricultural experts, ensuring knowledge is both preserved and evolving. This presentation will highlight how culturally grounded training and community collaboration can cultivate resilience and help future‑proof food systems for all.

Originally from Mexico, where she learned to grow food on her grandparent’s Milpa, Erika Resendiz Alonso moved to Minnesota in 2008, and has continued to carry and develop generations of knowledge of working the land as a leader in sustainable agriculture in urban and rural communities across the state. Through her work as an Ag Community Outreach Coordinator through Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College, Erika engages local community members to advocate for organic agriculture, healthy eating, food justice, and mindful relationships with land and food systems. Always keen to share her skills and information, she spearheaded the Bimaaji’idiwin Producer Training Program, which she has coordinated since 2019, and has recently been working as part of the Fond du Lac Ojibwe School Nutrition Team to support the incorporation of traditional Indigenous foods into regional school menus.

This interactive workshop explores how local food rescue efforts operate on the ground and how statewide policy can better support food waste reduction and organics diversion. Participants will learn about an innovative distribution pilot in Region Nine and efforts to pass complimentary statewide policy, engage in small group discussions, and identify opportunities to strengthen collaboration between local initiatives and policy solutions.

Sabri Fair is an Environment and Sustainability Planner at the Region Nine Development Commission. In this role he works on local food systems and clean energy and sustainability efforts across the nine counties of south-central Minnesota. This work has included writing grants for local farmers, developing a regional food rescue plan, creating farm to restaurant partnerships, and writing climate action plans for rural communities. 

Lucy Mullany is Vice President of Policy and Communications at Eureka Recycling, where she has led efforts including the passage of Minnesota’s Packaging Waste & Cost Reduction Act, supported Right to Repair legislation, and launched the Minnesota Zero Waste Coalition. She also serves as National Policy Director for the Alliance of Mission-Based Recyclers (AMBR), advocating for policies that strengthen recycling systems and keep resources in the ground. Lucy lives in the Twin Cities with her husband, two kids, two cats, and a dog.

Tom Polich joined RNDC in 2025 as the Food Rescue Coordinator. He has extensive experience in meals and nutrition services serving as a Regional Program Manager for Lutheran Social Service of MN (LSS) where he oversaw food access initiatives across a 13-county area. His work included managing home-delivered meal programs, child nutrition services, and partnerships aimed at reducing food scarcity.

Before his role at LSS, Tom was the Marketing Director for Mages Land Co & Auction Service and spent over 15 years in the food and beverage industry. His deep understanding of food systems, combined with his passion for food recovery, drives his work in connecting food shelves with available resources and minimizing food waste. In his current role at RNDC, he focuses on outreach, communication, and logistics to strengthen the regional food rescue network.

We invite you to participate with Regional Food Coordinators and state agency staff for a conversation about strengthening regional food systems for climate action. Come away with knowledge of climate work happening at the state level and potential funding opportunities. There will be time for small group conversation to build and deepen connections within your region.

CamerAn J. Bailey (he/him) is a planning specialist and the flagship Urban Agriculture Coordinator for Ramsey County.

• He has spent the last decade working in local government, community development, project management, finance, planning, and policy.
• Cam has had the supreme privilege and honor of visiting SoulFire Farm for an emerging farmer workshop in 2022.
• The Sonoran Desert and the North Shore his familial ecosystems.
• Cam is an aspiring soil, plant, and fungi steward in Minneapolis-St. Paul, and has too many house plant propagations if you ever want any. 

Taylour Blakeman (she/her) is a dedicated Public Health Specialist currently serving the Carlton-Cook-Lake-St. Louis (CCLS) Community Health Board. Her work is closely tied to the Statewide Health Improvement Partnership (SHIP) grant and involves active participation in a regional food network in Northeast Minnesota. This network focuses on food systems and food justice initiatives across a 12-county area.

Taylour holds a Bachelor’s degree in Public Health from the University of MN Duluth (UMD). Additionally, she is certified in Trauma-Informed Yoga Practice, having completed a 250-hour Yoga Teaching Certification.

In her personal time, Taylour enjoys walking her dogs along the beautiful trails of Lake Superior.

LinkedIn: Taylour Blakeman | LinkedIn

Sadie Gannett works for the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) as the Food Systems Coordinator in the Office of Statewide Health Improvement Initiatives. Her work focuses on increasing food access, strengthening food security, and building strong local food systems at the community level in partnership with local public health statewide. Sadie contributes to the Climate-Smart Food Systems grant as a co-lead for the Food Sovereignty and Vibrant Local Food Economies initiative. While now a city dweller, Sadie grew up on a small farm in western Wisconsin where she enjoyed milking goats, stacking firewood, and playing in the woods.

Tara Ritter works for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) coordinating the Climate-Smart Food Systems initiative. In this role, she provides project management and technical support across 20+ grant programs that fund projects across the food system. Tara has previously held policy advocacy and project management roles in the climate change and agriculture space. She grew up in Brainerd and enjoys being in nature as much as possible, playing with her dogs, and singing. 

How do agricultural policies move from idea to impact? In this interactive session, participants will explore how policy tools shape Minnesota’s food and farm landscape—and how you can effectively engage in the process.

We’ll provide an overview of Minnesota’s policy landscape and highlight how the MinneAg Network works to connect organizations, share resources, and strengthen collective advocacy across the state. The session will also cover how to track relevant bills and programs, understand committees, find and read legislative language, and know when there are opportunities for public input and advocacy. We’ll conclude with a hands-on workshop focused on writing a compelling letter of support for a legislative audience. This session is ideal for advocates, farmers, organizational leaders, and anyone interested in turning policy ideas into meaningful action.

Ariel Kagan joined the MFU team as the Climate and Working Lands Program Director in February 2023. Her background is in agricultural economics and policy and she has worked across sectors to support farmers, climate resilience, and policy development. At Farmers Union, she works on topics related to climate-smart agriculture, renewable energy, market development, and environmental policy. She holds an undergraduate degree in economics from Mount Holyoke College and a graduate degree in agricultural economics from University of British Columbia.

Laura Schreiber first joined LSP as a Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs (HECUA) intern in 2018, helping to launch our Local Foods Campaign. She has worn several hats with the Land Stewardship Project and the Land Stewardship Action Fund since. Laura coordinated LSP’s 2019 Family Farm Breakfast at the Capitol and can confirm it is the best breakfast in town. As an organizer with Land Stewardship Action, she also organized our members to get out and vote during the 2020 election. Passionate about creating a more diverse, resilient and just global food system, Laura knew that to create real change she needed to organize in her community and build the power of Minnesotans across the state to achieve the type of food system that people and the land need. As LSP’s government relations director, Laura serves as the organization’s primary and consistent face with legislative and administrative decision-makers in and around the Minnesota Capitol. When she is not listening to food policy podcasts or trying to set up compost programs (but really, if you’re excited about waste management, she’s your gal) or reading recipes books and cooking (her dream is to own a small cafe one day), she can be found hiking and climbing around Minnesota! Originally from Rogers, Minn., Laura graduated from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in 2019 with degrees in Urban Studies and Public Relations and a minor in Leadership.

John Beaton and his wife, Emily, operate Fairhaven Farm in St. Louis County. They cultivate fresh fruits and vegetables, grow starter plants for home gardeners and raise a flock of Icelandic sheep.

He joined the MN Farmers Union Membership team in November 2025.

In this workshop you will learn about the DCWC Nourish (a social enterprise of the Duluth Center for Women and Children); a meal kit service rooted in the Central Hillside community, created to ensure families have access to healthy, affordable food. DCWC Nourish (formerly Food Forward) is more than just a meal delivery service—it’s a fully grassroots initiative created by the women of the Central Hillside, driven by a deep understanding of the unique challenges our community faces. Since our founding in 2022, we’ve delivered over 8,000 meal kits, helping low-income families in Duluth develop and sustain healthy eating habits.

Aparna is an Associate Professor and Director of the Interdisciplinary Studies program at the University of Minnesota Duluth. She is passionate about developing an ecosystem that bridges students’ academic and workforce needs with those of the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Community engagement with long-term mutually beneficial partnerships for teaching, learning, and research is at the heart of her work. Aparna provides leadership and scholarly expertise in Social Entrepreneurship for the Duluth Center for Women and Children’s signature program, Nourish. She is currently co-leading the creation of a Humanities-led Community-Engaged Food and Environmental Justice Studies Hub at UMD funded by the Mellon Foundation. Her research projects are publicly engaged, with a clear problem of practice, and, more recently, have focused on issues of community-scale sustainable and just food systems. 

Renewing the Countryside will present on there Farmers’ Market Food Hub project and how far it has come over 9 years! The 7 food hubs have gone from $6k in sales in 2019 to over $400k in 2025. The hubs provide an essential service in their communities, supplying schools with healthy food, delivering produce boxes to elder-care centers, and providing food-as-medicine to community members through VeggieRx programs.

Our goal is to build out a robust and sustainable food shed using the hub model that includes: Grounding in local communities, a supply chain that is resilient to weather and resource fluctuations, hyper-local production, and increasing public education about a sustainable food system. The success of these food hubs hinges on local champions and community support, and in order to sustain and grow them we need continued community engagement and market share.

Maeve joined the Renewing the Countryside team in February of 2023. She supports the Farmers’ Market Aggregation Team, Local Agritourism Work, Go Farm Connect Program, and RTC’s MN State Fair Exhibit as a Project Coordinator. Originally from Indiana, Maeve completed her M.A. in Sustainable Development in Vermont, was a Peace Corps Agriculture Extension volunteer in Paraguay, and worked with the Minnesota Farmers’ Market Association as their Farmers Market Economic Opportunity VISTA. She is passionate about the impact sustainable and local agriculture has on climate justice, rural economic growth, and public health and is excited to support local food systems through her work with RTC. 

Allison Rian is a farmer in Aitkin, MN, a farmer advocate, and a local food champion. Allison has served as the Aitkin Farmers’ Market Hub manager since 2020 and has no plans to stop shortening supply chains, championing local businesses, and working for the chaotic good. Now in an expanded role with RTC on Minnesota Women in Conservation and Farm to Kids, she’s excited to include a greater story of conservation, preservation, and production in the chaos.

Insights and resources on the importance of self-care for sustaining important work. Create your own self-care plan, contribute to a community poem, and share what self-care means to you.

Laura is a Clinical Massage Therapist, vegetable farmer, and community organizer. Passionate about helping people understand and support their bodies, she creates wellness spaces and training programs to empower people to incorporate self-care into demanding work.

Dr. Sheronda Orridge is the founder and principal of Loving Spirit Holistic Services LLC. She is a holistic life coach, trainer, and community leader with experience in coaching, curriculum development, motivational speaking, and creative arts. Dr. Orridge holds advanced degrees in Metaphysical Science and a PhD in Holistic Life Coaching from the University of Sedona. Her work focuses on supporting communities of color through holistic healing, leadership development, and community-based initiatives.

• Facebook 
• drsherondaorridge (@drsherondaorridge) | TikTok
• Dr. Sheronda Orridge Ph.D. | LinkedIn
• Dr. Sheronda Orridge (@DrSherondaO) / X

Chef Blong, Lachelle and Jenny will demonstrate a cultural dish while Med students and Urban Roots staff will facilitate a discussion about food stories, how those stories related to food as medicine and how cooking and culture are connected to health and community.

Chef Blong…

Chef Lachelle Cunningham is a culinary changemaker, food justice advocate, and community healer working at the intersection of culture, wellness, and entrepreneurship. She is the founder of the Healthy Roots Institute, owner of City Food Studio in George Floyd Square, and Executive Director of Frogtown Farm. Through culturally grounded food education and holistic business development, Cunningham empowers individuals to nourish themselves and build sustainable, community-rooted food enterprises. A 2024 Bush Fellow, JRJLA Fellow, and Board Chair of the Neighborhood Development Center, she is transforming the food system from the ground up—centered on people, rooted in culture, and driven by the belief that everyone deserves access to abundance.

• Instagram: @lachellecunningham / @Healthyrootsinstitute
• Facebook: @LachelleCunningham / @Healthyrootsinstitute

Jenny Breen has been a professional chef and advocate for local food and just and sustainable food systems since the mid 1980’s. She has creatively centered her work with food at the intersection of cooking, health, education and justice by building networks within health and food systems for greater access to food, support for sustainable farming, and to promote cooking as a health and community building strategy. 

Jenny teaches several classes on these topics through Bakken Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota, and manages the teaching kitchen at the Redleaf Center for Family Healing at Hennepin Healthcare.  Jenny’s work makes food and cooking relevant to the bigger picture of health for all people, communities and the planet. She shares a love of food, learning, well being and social justice, and brings a dynamic combination of skills, leadership, passion and experience to her work.

• Website: www.transformingthetable.com
• Insta:  @jennybroccoli51
• Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenny-breen-3127466/

Cultivating & Cooking Together: A space where culture is shared through cultivating from our earth and building community through food. This workshop will include ways to use your harvest, deep discussions about the dire need to respect, protect, and maintain our lands, and various self-care practices that everyone can implement as farmers or gardeners. We will also touch on topics such as food sovereignty and get an in-depth breakdown of my farming practices as a farmer of color. Come journey with me and take a peek into the world of a passionate steward of the earth.

My name is Brownson Arebojie, and I have a deep passion for the natural world, particularly in agriculture and sustainable horticulture, which has led to over 6 years of unique experiences throughout Minnesota.  My journey has included a two-year farm apprenticeship, the Extension Master Gardener program, an Operations Manager role in a communal garden, an Urban Farm Manager role, a Food Sovereignty Strategist role, and an Interpretive Garden Exhibit Coordinator role.  I love creating and maintaining beautiful spaces that bring joy, knowledge, and healing to individuals and the community.

• Website:  https://www.sproutedspirits.com/
• Instagram:  sproutedspirits1111 

100 Cups of Coffee: The Duluth Food Justice Policy Council, guided by the Duluth Chapter NAACP, is working to dismantle racism and disrupt inequality, specifically in our local food system. There are many great programs in the Duluth area that provide food to neighbors, and many rich conversations about food justice. We are building on this good work to support food justice policy development that works for our community. From 2024 to 2025, the team had 100 conversations with Duluth community members around food access. In this workshop, you will learn about a 100 Cups of Coffee model that can be used in your community, the 100 conversations key results, and planned next steps.

Mary Parsatoon is a Public Health Planner at the Carlton-Cook-Lake-St. Louis Community Health Board. Her work includes co-leading implementation of the regional community health improvement plan for the four-county region. Outside of work, she also does food insecurity research and is co-chair for the Duluth Community Garden Program. She has an MPH in Public Health from the University of South Dakota and a BASc in Public Health and BA in International Studies from the University of Minnesota Duluth. Mary lives in Duluth, MN with her husband Nathan and dog Scruffy.  

For your meetings, action-planning, follow-up convos, etc. Use this space as you need to throughout the weekend!

The facilitators of this session are leading the creation of a community-engaged food and environmental justice studies Hub at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Duluth is becoming a climate refuge. As we face growing environmental risks, the Hub brings together local wisdom and university resources to ensure no community is left behind. You can hear stories about the Hub’s work and participate in discussions about its mission and engagement model.

Aparna is an Associate Professor and Director of the Interdisciplinary Studies program at the University of Minnesota Duluth. She is passionate about developing an ecosystem that bridges students’ academic and workforce needs with those of the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Community engagement with long-term mutually beneficial partnerships for teaching, learning, and research is at the heart of her work. Aparna provides leadership and scholarly expertise in Social Entrepreneurship for the Duluth Center for Women and Children’s signature program, Nourish. She is currently co-leading the creation of a Humanities-led Community-Engaged Food and Environmental Justice Studies Hub at UMD funded by the Mellon Foundation. Her research projects are publicly engaged, with a clear problem of practice, and, more recently, have focused on issues of community-scale sustainable and just food systems. 

Dana Lindaman, PhD, is an Associate Professor of French at the University of Minnesota Duluth. His major research interests include French national myths, technology in language pedagogy, food as an expression of culture, and study abroad as a High-Impact Practice. He believes strongly in the importance of undergraduate research and the relational power of shared meals. Email: lindaman@d.umn.edu  

The MFJN Food As Medicine/Health Team is rebuilding people’s relationship with food and changing policies by: reconnecting our bodies with food; getting upstream to where food and plants are medicine; valuing traditional knowledge and experience; creating a shared understanding of “food is medicine;” and advocating for resources and choices that support using everyday herbs and food medicinally.

Full Lives is Greater Twin Cities United Way’s multiyear initiative to advance a more equitable regional food system. Phase 1 of Full Lives (July 2024 – December 2025) supported collaboratives across the nine county Twin Cities metro area as they strengthen local food systems through community driven, collaborative solutions. This session will feature a cohort showcase highlighting the accomplishments of our Phase 1 funded partners. To close the session, we will also offer a brief overview of GTCUW’s upcoming Phase 2 grant opportunity, including what we’re prioritizing, the application timeline, and other key details related to the opportunity.

The CFAC (Cross-Campus Food Access Coalition) is a unique team of private colleges (and their sponsors) using a justice and equity framework to address food systems while sharing and collaborating on food access/food systems events. We act as a community to learn and refine best practices to address food insecurity on campus. We engage and develop interdisciplinary student leadership around food access, food systems, sustainability, and community organizing to learn more about what food insecurity looks like at each of our campuses, collectively, and share that story.

After conversations and surveys, NWFP identified that lack of space and equipment to prepare, preserve, and process food is one barrier community members face. With the support of the Northeast Regional Sustainable Development Partnership NWFP was able to purchase equipment requested by community members. Come chat with organizers and get a peek of the library! Learn more here. 

Want to host a table conversation, action-planning session, or storytelling circle? Go deeper on something you learned at a breakout session? Maybe you want to choreograph a dance or write a poem with Summit attendees?  This space is for you!

Signs-ups for hosting during OPEN SPACE will happen Saturday morning.

GROWS is a collective dedicated to increasing the production & availability of fresh food, with a focus on the West Side of Saint Paul, by facilitating cooperation among individuals and organizations. The primary tactic of GROWS is the mutually beneficial sharing of material resources (seeds, equipment, labor-hours, food, money) and immaterial resources (best practices, skill sharing, lessons learned).

Regina Laroche will share a 15-minute Story offering (“Baobab Seeds”) that includes full community song participation. The story is one of the origin stories of my Diaspora Gardens Land-Art-Spirit practice for nourishing and healing land, bodies, community, and spirit.

This interactive session invites participants to bring a real challenge they’re seeing in the food system and work alongside peers to generate fresh ideas and practical solutions.  Attendees will engage in hands‑on, collaborative problem‑solving designed to surface real, actionable insights. The perspectives shared in this space will also help inform how Greater Twin Cities United Way (GTCUW) understands emerging pressures in food justice work. In the session, we will also offer a brief overview of GTCUW’s upcoming Phase 2 grant opportunity, including what we’re prioritizing, the application timeline, and other key details related to the opportunity.

Dr. Orridge is a spoken word artist who will create spoken word pieces around the Summit theme: Rooted in Culture, Rising with Resilience.

After conversations and surveys, NWFP identified that lack of space and equipment to prepare, preserve, and process food is one barrier community members face. With the support of the Northeast Regional Sustainable Development Partnership NWFP was able to purchase equipment requested by community members. Come chat with organizers and get a peek of the library! Learn more here. 

Want to host a table conversation, action-planning session, or storytelling circle? Go deeper on something you learned at a breakout session? Maybe you want to choreograph a dance or write a poem with Summit attendees?  This space is for you!

Signs-ups for hosting during OPEN SPACE will happen Saturday morning.

Want to host a table conversation, action-planning session, or storytelling circle? Go deeper on something you learned at a breakout session? Maybe you want to choreograph a dance or write a poem with Summit attendees?  This space is for you!

Signs-ups for hosting during OPEN SPACE will happen Saturday morning.

Mission: Indigenous Roots Cultural Center (IRoots) is dedicated to building, supporting, and cultivating opportunities for and with Brown, Black, Native, and Indigenous peoples through cultural arts, creative expression, and activism. We maximize the potential of creative space by integrating intersectional artmaking with professional development, fostering critical thinking, and engaging multiple modes of economy. Our village model centers artists and culture bearers in leadership, with community partners spanning diverse cultures, ages, genders, and sexualities. Through this approach, we challenge systemic inequities creating accessible and transformative opportunities for historically marginalized communities.

Vision: We envision a vibrant, resilient, and inclusive community where ancestral knowledge, cultural expression, and artistic innovation are honored and sustained. Through our programs, artists, youth, and culture bearers thrive economically, creatively, and socially, contributing to a multigenerational legacy of cultural pride, interconnection, and empowerment across the Twin Cities and beyond.

Appointed June 2019

Mr. Patrice Bailey was appointed to the position of Assistant Commissioner in June 2019. Patrice is the first Assistant Commissioner of Color in Minnesota state history.  Bailey oversees Outreach, Agricultural Marketing and Development, Dairy and Meat Inspection, and Food and Feed Safety for the MDA. Bailey, a native of Harlem, New York, holds a B.S. in Agriculture Education from Prairie View A&M University (Texas) and has a master’s degree in agriculture from Iowa State University. Currently, Patrice Bailey is working on an Executive MBA from University of St. Thomas. He has served the Twin Cities in several positions, with his first position at the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resources Sciences (CFANS). Bailey in previous positions focused on bridging gaps within underrepresented communities of color to various available resources and advocating for them legislatively at the State Capitol. Bailey was instrumental in creating the Emerging Farmers Working Group (EFWG) the Emerging Farmer Office (EFO) which is the first office in the nation that has an office dedicated to helping Emerging Farmers as well as first agriculture license plate for Minnesota Agriculture.